On John McIntyre

OK, so outsourcing copy editing to Bangalore is probably not the greatest of ideas. However, let's take it point by point with McIntyre's column (quick question: if McIntyre wasn't a relative name in the industry, would he still have a job at the Sun? A lot of old dogs have been getting cut out in the past few years). The examples he uses on local geography are exaggerated at best. Google (and its Maps application) get you to the pertinent information in a matter of seconds. In fact, perhaps in the length of time it takes Mr. Older Copyeditor to ask around the water cooler to confirm parallel streets, our enterprising Indian may have already Google Earthed up the answer. In fact, after being the "beat" for long enough, the outsource employee might develop a pretty solid understanding of Respective Small Market Newspaper Town. Not that I do not agree with McIntyre on a number of points in general, as described on his rather pleasant blog. The guy really really does know and appreciate the beauty of the English language, without being didactic about the whole thing. At the same time, he might want to do a bit more hypothetical fact-checking of his thought experiments. Just a thought.